First and foremost, a big thank you to Andrew Johnson and secondly, a big hello to all of you guys. My name is John Gogoi. I'm a native of Minnesota hailing from Willmar (320 wut wut!). I'm currently a student at the University of Minnesota and a strong advocate of volunteering and the enjoyment/preservation of our national park system. As of today, I'm also a writer for this blog. I've been called up by the head honcho himself (aka. Andrew "EastCoast" Johnson) to write a series of entries specifically on the subject of micronations. So without further adieu the staff at The Best of What's Around present to you guys, our esteemed readers, a series entitled: Micronation Monday Presents. You guys are probably thinking, What is a micronation? If you are then shame, shame, shame for having not read the last blog entry. No worries, take five and go read it. It's the one before this one. Good to go? Great. Now that we all know the definition of a micronation, I would like to entertain you with the idea of a place that is both real and not real. Subscribe your minds, briefly if you will, to the idea that in this world there can exist a place that is both a country and not a country. Not a country because the U.N. and other won't recognize it and country nonetheless in the eyes of a man and his family. I give you the Principality of Sealand. You're maybe thinking to yourself, "What? what kind of nonsense is this? The principality of who, what now?" I thought the same thing too. According to Wikipedia, Sealand is basically a Maunsell sea fort off the U.K. coast that some guy claimed as his own country. For those of you that don't know, a Maunsell sea fort is a kind of fort created out on the water that was used to protect the U.K. from the Nazis. This particular fort (six miles off the coast of Suffolk, England in case you decide to visit) was occupied by a Mr. Paddy Roy Bates in 1967. Legend has it (wikipedia) Paddy being a pirate radio broadcaster, wanted to broadcast his pirate broadcast station off the platform. So he did and he had to go to court for it, but because the platform was in international waters and not British waters the authorities couldn't do a whole lot. by the time British waters were extended the guy had his own constitution, currency, flag, passports, etc. So ya, that's it in a nutshell. He still runs the platform and his family is the royalty. Go to wikipedia and look it up....the article mentions a hostile takeover by German nationals which is hilarious.
First and foremost, a big thank you to Andrew Johnson and secondly, a big hello to all of you guys. My name is John Gogoi. I'm a native of Minnesota hailing from Willmar (320 wut wut!). I'm currently a student at the University of Minnesota and a strong advocate of volunteering and the enjoyment/preservation of our national park system. As of today, I'm also a writer for this blog. I've been called up by the head honcho himself (aka. Andrew "EastCoast" Johnson) to write a series of entries specifically on the subject of micronations. So without further adieu the staff at The Best of What's Around present to you guys, our esteemed readers, a series entitled: Micronation Monday Presents. You guys are probably thinking, What is a micronation? If you are then shame, shame, shame for having not read the last blog entry. No worries, take five and go read it. It's the one before this one. Good to go? Great. Now that we all know the definition of a micronation, I would like to entertain you with the idea of a place that is both real and not real. Subscribe your minds, briefly if you will, to the idea that in this world there can exist a place that is both a country and not a country. Not a country because the U.N. and other won't recognize it and country nonetheless in the eyes of a man and his family. I give you the Principality of Sealand. You're maybe thinking to yourself, "What? what kind of nonsense is this? The principality of who, what now?" I thought the same thing too. According to Wikipedia, Sealand is basically a Maunsell sea fort off the U.K. coast that some guy claimed as his own country. For those of you that don't know, a Maunsell sea fort is a kind of fort created out on the water that was used to protect the U.K. from the Nazis. This particular fort (six miles off the coast of Suffolk, England in case you decide to visit) was occupied by a Mr. Paddy Roy Bates in 1967. Legend has it (wikipedia) Paddy being a pirate radio broadcaster, wanted to broadcast his pirate broadcast station off the platform. So he did and he had to go to court for it, but because the platform was in international waters and not British waters the authorities couldn't do a whole lot. by the time British waters were extended the guy had his own constitution, currency, flag, passports, etc. So ya, that's it in a nutshell. He still runs the platform and his family is the royalty. Go to wikipedia and look it up....the article mentions a hostile takeover by German nationals which is hilarious. 
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